Using an enhanced version of the fractal engine created for Rescue On Fractalus, The Eidolon is a first-person action game – developed by Lucasfilm Games and published by Epyx in North America in 1985 and Activision in Europe in 1986 – that divided critics when it was first released. While Zzap!64 magazine gave it 97% and a gold medal; raved about the game, and said that it was “not to be missed“, the reviewers of Computer Gaming World disliked it, describing it as “one of the worst games of 1986“… There’s no accounting for taste…

The backstory is that you (an unnamed adventurer) have discovered a strange 19th-Century vehicle – called The Eidolon – in an abandoned laboratory once owned by Dr. Josef Vincent Agon. While sitting inside the device you accidentally activate it and are transported to another dimension where you are trapped inside a large maze-like cave. The creatures inside this cave are awakened from their long sleep by the energy emanating from The Eidolon. Your only chance of survival is to explore the caves, collect the mysterious coloured energy orbs, defeat the guardians with The Eidolon‘s powerful energy weapon, then collect the jewels that are left by them. Once you have the three jewels inside each cave you can then face the dragon that guards the exit. Defeat the dragon and you can move on to the next cave, but only if you can do it before your limited time runs out. There are eight caves in total and only by completing each one and defeating the final dragon can you complete Dr. Agon’s experiment with the mysterious Eidolon.

The Eidolon was developed first for Atari 8-bit systems and then ported to the Commodore 64 and other home computers. It requires an Atari XL/XE with 64kB or more memory to run.

Controlling The Eidolon is via the joystick and keyboard. Moving is a simple matter of pushing the joystick up, down, left and right. Pressing the number keys one through four changes the type of fireball you’ll fire. One selects red; two selects gold; three selects green, and four selects blue.

Floating coloured orbs seen inside (and sometimes moving around) the caves can be collected by pressing Space when the diamond-shaped cursor appears over them. Jewels are collected in the same way. Note, though, that red orbs are deadly and cannot be collected as they are, because they will deplete The Eidolon‘s energy reserves. Instead they must be neutralised by firing another red fireball at them, which transforms them into a gold fireball (which can then be collected). Gold fireballs replenish The Eidolon‘s energy when collected. Blue fireballs alter the flow of time (the clock stops temporarily when blue orbs are collected, and firing blue fireballs at enemies will freeze them for a short period of time). Green fireballs will transform a creature into another type, although this is random and there’s no way of knowing if the resulting creature will be more or less dangerous than the one originally targeted.

The panel at the bottom of the screen shows a variety of useful information. From left to right: the proximity indicator shows how close you are to the guardian dragon (C = Cold; H = Hot). Underneath that are three diamond shapes that flicker when you have a coloured jewel in your possession (three are required: red, green and blue). The central dial indicates fractions of minutes remaining on the timer, and also acts as a compass – the four spikes indicating north, south, east and west, and the one blinking shows the direction you’re currently facing. The four coloured dots surrounding the dial light up to show the fireballs you have in your possession, and the one blinking is the one that is currently selected. To the right of the centre dial is an energy meter at the top, showing The Eidolon‘s energy reserves, and underneath that are two numbers; the number on the left are whole minutes remaining on the timer, and the number on the right is the current level you’re on.

The key to successfully completing levels in The Eidolon is to move quickly and not waste time; create (or locate) a set of maps and have a plan for each cave (meaning: plan a route to each of the three guardians, then to the dragon – don’t waste time going down dead ends or places you’ve already cleared out); kill the guardians quickly and efficiently and grab the resulting jewels; DON’T fire too many red fireballs at a guardian at once because if you kill one it will disappear and the remaining red fireballs will bounce off the wall behind them and into you; avoid any red fireballs moving in the caves and make sure you turn them into gold orbs before collecting them, and finally: work out (and make a note of) how to deal with each dragon guardian in each of the eight caves.

When you approach each dragon they’ll be grey and inactive. An invisible barrier will prevent you from moving toward them if you don’t have all three jewels. The barrier will automatically dissolve when you have the three required jewels in your possession. If you don’t have all the jewels the barrier will glow the colour of those you still need.

Defeat the dragon and the door to the next level will open. Each dragon is different and has its own vulnerabilities, which you must discover. As an example: the first dragon must be killed by shooting red fireballs at it. It only takes about three of four shots before it explodes into a mass of pixels. The second dragon requires gold fireballs shooting at it; the third: green, and so on. And of course the dragons don’t just sit there doing nothing, allowing you to take pot-shots at them – they’ll also shoot fireballs at you. You can, however, press Space to absorb the orbs they throw at you to top up your own energy, but remember that red fireballs are harmful unless you transform them with a red fireball first. Which means that – with the later, harder dragons – you have to watch what they fire and change the colour of your own fireballs to match, which can be tricky. If The Eidolon‘s energy reserve reaches zero you’ll have to start the level from scratch.

In retrospect, The Eidolon is a truly original and absorbing game that is unlike anything released before or since. And while it won’t appeal to everyone I’d have to say that Computer Gaming World were quite wrong in their assessment of this game…

More: The Eidolon on Wikipedia